Simple Decorating Ideas for Christmas

Every year I try to decide what color scheme I will be utilizing for the holidays. I have my "blue" Christmas, my "red" Christmas , my "white and gold" Christmas and my "color" Christmas decorations all separated. I really wanted to do white and gold this holiday but realized I didn't have white lights. Since times are tough I really didn't want to spend any more money buying new lights seeing as I already had several large boxes of Christmas lights. I then decided I could make this year white and blue, but then thought better of it as I decided going colorful would be best to cheer up my already "blue" mood. Don't get me wrong, I love having nothing but blue lights on my tree, blue ornaments and my blue Santa tree topper, but I think color, color and more color will be best.

I don't know if you're familiar with the tree topper Santas which are basically a Santa head, arms and coat on a plastic cone to put atop your tree. I had purchased a nice old fashioned Santa tree topper some years ago in red and green garb, but when it was time to do a blue Christmas one year, I realized this Santa was not going to work out. My mother then purchased another Santa and several items I could use to remake this Santa into a blue one. It was quite easier than I thought. You may have something similar that you would like to redo and here's some suggestions. Now my Santa was holding a sack in one hand and a Christmas tree with a sack on the bottom of it in the other. I cut some shiny blue lame fabric and re-wrapped the sacks cinching the tops shut with blue cord. I also added one of those cheap Christmas picks you can get at any craft store and most Christmas departments for $.50 and added that in the top of the sack. (See picture) I then cut more of the shiny blue lame in the same shape as the middle of his coat and used fabric glue to attached it. i also added blue decorative cord to his hat and coat and the end result was my "blue" Santa that I couldn't find in any store. Seeing how easy it was to redo him, when I am ready I know it will be easy to redo him in any color I choose. I think next time I will fix him up in all red. The ideas are endless as to how you could redo your Santa or maybe even Angel tree topper if you'd like it to match with a particular color scheme.

Now, as I said earlier, I have boxes of lights in all red, all blue and multi-color. I decided to make my tree this year in multi-colors, but I had already done my dining room in silver and blue. Rather than worry about areas not matching others, I just went overboard and decorating everything I could. Since I had a dark blue table cloth on my dining room table and a centerpiece I made myself with an iridescent vase filled with silver icicle sprays, a blue ribbon around the neck of the vase and some blue ornaments tied together and set in the middle, I wanted to keep that whole area in the same shades. I always had a string of white lights wrapped around the wine rack that goes with the table, so I just added some silver garland and also wrapped and laid a string of blue lights around it and on the shelves. I then added several shiny blue ornaments inside some of the vases and candle holders so when you put the lights on at night, all the ornaments glow also.

I also added a string of multi-colored lights to the mirror in the foyer and laid the balance of it on the table below and set candles, in holders, around the table. Not only does that keep the string of lights from falling off, it will give the lights something extra to illuminate. If you have some extra garland laying around, even the cheap foil-like garland, I would lay those messily on every table in the house, wrapping them around any items on those tables. If you have a chandelier type light fixture over your dining room table, another thing I did one year was to use matching colored ribbon that I hung ornaments from and then tied to various sections of my light. I hung the ornaments in several different lengths which set off a beautiful glow when I lit candles on the table. If you have plants inside your home, don't forget to string the larger ones with lights and/or drop ornaments in the pots of smaller house plants.

Lastly, I had two wreaths for my front door, but realized after I put them up that some of the decorations on them were faded and they looked really bad. I pulled everything off of them and started fresh. I wanted something to be more eye-catching when people passed our home. The easiest thing to do to redecorate your wreaths with is to buy a bunch of fake poinsettias that you can get at just about any store such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart or any craft store such as Michael's. Take a pair of tin snips and cut them at the stems just long enough to tuck and wrap in your wreath. I bought a couple bunches for about $2 each which yielded around 20 flowers. I choose some that were outlined with gold glitter. I also found some leaves that were completely covered with red glitter and after sticking these in all around my wreaths, I have two beautiful, red, sparkling wreaths hanging on my front doors. It's a cheap and easy was to reuse old wreaths instead of spending $30 or more on already decorated ones. To get a little more sparkle out of them as I did, you can wrap some foil garland around the wreaths before decorating with flowers or even the Christmas picks of ornaments or gift boxes. These cheap picks can also be used to decorate all over the house. I wrap them around furniture handles, stick them in plant pots or anywhere else you can think of.

My theory is there is no way you can have too many decorations this time of year. Excess is best and most beautiful no matter what colors you decide to use. I say if you can wrap it or hang it, than do it. Merry Christmas!